Children of the Deep
by Noneofyourdamnbuisness14
Summary: "Thanatos is a cruel, cruel god, no matter what they say. He steals away those you care about, until you have nothing left but your own thoughts to drive you insane. I can't run from him. I have found Camp J, and it's safe, but for how long?" Very, very Dark. Don't read if you don't like self wallowing. Rated M for swearing and adult content (Not sex)


I watched as the arrow flew towards my chest. Time seemed to freeze as I took one final look at my surroundings before the pain I knew would come hit me and I lay motionless on the grassy hill. About ten yards in front of me, an arrow with a barbed arrow head and black grey feathers was flying at me at incredible speeds. The arrow was going too fast and was too close for me to dodge or somehow intercept. I knew it would hit. Just like the last one hit me in the arm. The grass around my feet tickled my toes as I viewed the green hill I was currently residing upon. It was dotted with purple and yellow flowers, somewhat like what you would see in your mind if you thought about flowery meadows. I could feel my clothes weighing down on my skin, making my bodies tiredness kick in even more with fatigue.

I took the short time I had left to remember Ethan. God dammit, I miss him. My best mate, gone from this world, another life ended by those fuckers. I remember when we started, running from our school in Vancouver. We were chilling at my house, goofing around when we were supposed to be studying, when I heard my sister scream. My sis Melissa was only a year and a half older than me and really short for her age. I towered over her when I was twelve and she fourteen. But then again, I'm kind of a behemoth myself. Fourteen years old and six feet tall, I always felt so weird at school, looking down at all my friends. That's why Ethan and I were such good mates, he was five foot eleven, and so we were practically the same height.

Anyways, we both ran downstairs to find this giant monstrosity, some weird lion with sparkly gold fur, shake my sister's body in its monstrous maw. I didn't have to look twice to know she was dead.

The grief came later.

At the time, I had grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed it in its back. I was thoroughly shocked when the blade shattered, sending shrapnel at my face. It still stung right now, reminiscing before I die. I then grabbed a frying pan and whapped it on the head while Ethan grasped a plate of mashed potatoes he had planned to eat later and smashed it on its behind. It roared, a deafening sound, and swatted Ethan away with one of its filthy paws. Seeing my sister's dead body on the found in front of me, and my best friends unconscious one a little ways away from me, caused something in me to snap. I ran towards it with my mother's favorite kitchen knife, and when the beast opened its mouth, I rammed it inside the roof of his filthy trap. He spluttered a few times, probably flabbergasted that I had found a weakness, and then disintegrated into a fine golden dust.

I picked up Ethan and tried to wake him up, but he was out cold. I was still so angry, and my adrenaline was running so high, that I literally picked him up and ran out the front door. I don't know when I stopped, I just ran, and ran, and ran. People on the street probably thought I was a murderer or something, but I didn't care. I just had to get Ethan and myself away from that place.

I remember a voice though, telling me to go west, and I took that as the best answer.

I found this little area in an underpass that would have to do for the night. When I laid Ethan down, he started to come to. When he fully woke, I told him what happened. He told me while he was asleep, some voice told him that he was also supposed to go west, so we decided, what the heck, let's stay together.

We traveled for three days, and during that time I saw things I had never seen before. I saw wolves the size of pick-up trucks stalking deer during the night. I saw lumbering giants with only a single eye on their head walking around with tree trunks, smashing rocks as they went. And the whole time, some little voice in my mind kept encouraging me, no, ordering me to go west.

The strange thing was, I thought I had heard that voice before. When I was six, I was deathly afraid of the dark. I would hide under my covers, turn on a flashlight, and read a book till I was so physically exhausted I didn't realize I would fall asleep. But then one night, the voice came. He told me that the darkness wasn't bad, it was just what sometimes his in it that was. All the while, I felt like I had a connection to the voice. It almost felt like I could _feel _his presence there.

After that night, darkness was my favorite thing. Sometimes, on a bad day, I would come home, turn off the lights, and just bask in the darkness. That probably sounds pretty emo, but something about the darkness was so _inviting. _So freaking _invigorating _it was like taking a drug. A drug that cost nothing.

I was in the dark so much; I was pretty much able to see in it. Sometimes I thought I actually was. I remember my school took my class on a field trip to this old cave system, and everybody but me brought a flashlight. I had purposely not, because I thought that being here, in the cave with real darkness, would be the best feeling ever. When everybody went ahead, I lagged behind, drinking in the darkness. I somehow followed the group the entire time, without tripping, banging m head once, or anything, without a flash light.

The voice always gave me something I loved, and I was sure as hell ready for another one.

Ethan and I were on our third day when it happened. We were in the outskirts of San Fransico (We had jacked a car off this idiot who forgot his keys in the car) and were heading to this tunnel that Ethan said he had a string pull to. We each grabbed a doughnut from DunkinDoughnouts, Ethan teasing me about the name, when we heard this god awful screech.

Up in the sky was something that scared the fucking shit out of me. It was this creature who had two heads, each easily the size of a Smart Car. The eyes were reptilian slits, and its skin was a deep crimson colour. It's feet were each out fitted with wickedly curved talons; its hands with serrated claws. Its back was lumpy and uneven, and going along his spine were jagged spikes, all the way to the tail which forked into two ends, each topped off with knives like blades.

At times like that, you always wish you could say "I stood my ground and fought the awful beast with my bare hands!" But sadly life does not in the slightest work that way. No, I ran. The entire time, there was only one word in my mind. One word I was screaming over and over again relentlessly. _ "FUCK!"_

Ethan and I broke for the hills, hoping to hide from the thing in the foliage. It looked too big to really go down to ground level, so we decided any wooded area was the best thing. We had to swerve through citizens and tourist, most of whom were too busy taking pictures of the dragon thingy flying in the air.

We finally made it to the hill we had landmarked from a distance, and we steadily made our way towards the peak to get a good view of our surroundings. My internal radar was bleeping like a mad man, and I knew we were close to our destination.

Ethan pulled a map off of his back, and started looking through it. We were halfway their when I heard a noise coming from a bush to our left. Ethan heard it too, but right before I could say anything, I saw an arrow fly through my best mates head, dropping him immediately. I took a bit of time to think about that. Whenever I had pictured our deaths, I had always thought it would be to some big bad creature, like one of those horrendous creatures you found in Final Fantasy or whatever.

But not like this. This was too lonely, too sad, and too meaningless. Ethan definitely did not want to die like that, and I sure as fuck don't want to as well.

I ducked. I don't know why I did, but I did. Just in time to hear the whistles of an arrow go over my head. I then ran. I ran faster than I ever had before. Just running for that tunnel, the Cadelcott, I think it was, but I didn't care. No, I had to make it. For Ethan, so that whomever was there at my destination could have a proper send-off or something for him.

I turned my head around, wanting to see who my assailant was for a second, but immediately turned away to stop myself from vomiting. I had turned around just in time to see one of the hooded figures pull the arrow out of Ethan's head, deflating it like a balloon with blood and brain matter seeping put.

I kept going until I was at the top. I could see the tunnel from up here, and if I looked close enough, I could see two people standing guard at some door near the underpass. I was about to start running down the hill when an arrow impaled itself in my leg.

And that was it. The moment that happened, I knew it. Game over, you have out welcomed your stay, you're leaving the island. I snapped myself back to reality. I was so damn tired. I just wanted to give up. But then I remembered Ethan, my sister, and then I thought about the voice. I grew so damn angry I don't exactly know what happened. One moment, the arrow was speeding towards me, the next I had somehow grabbed it out of midair, and had hurled it at the archer. It flew straight and true, making a sickening thud noise as it implanted itself inside my supposed-to-be killer's neck. His jugular vein burst open, blood flowing down his neck like a river.

I heard footsteps in the forest, and out of some weird impulse stomped my foot on the ground. The earth itself shook, and the ground in front of me began falling apart, a giant pit forming in front of me. The crevasse opened very far into the forest, and I could hear guttural screams pierce the air as my enemies fell to their demise.

I suddenly felt weak, tired, dazed. I turned around and started running down the hill as fast as I could. I made my way towards the tunnel, and I could see multiple people storming out of the doors, pointing at the hill and then pointing at my advancing form. A couple pulled out weapons, but the girl in the purple robes waved her hands and they all dropped them.

I finally arrived, and fell to my knees in exhaustion. They carried me through the doors on a stretcher, and I was able to get a view of my surroundings. It was like I had entered a Roman battle facility. I could see the fortress upon which the Romans must have worked out of, and in the distance, I could see a city.

Looks like I entered "New Rome" I thought dryly. I laughed later on when I found out that is what it was actually called.

The girl in the purple toga beside me tried to coax some information out of me, but I was slipping in and out of consciousness, and she got very little. I was only able to ask one question.

"What's happening to me?" I was able to croak out. The girl looked at me amused for a fraction of a second, before an inquisitive look fell upon her face. "That," she said. "Is what we want to find out."

I woke up with my vision blurry and disoriented. When I tried to clear my eyes, I found my arms too weak to be lifted. I tried to talk, but all that came out was a small whisper. I noticed that on my lap was a square of something that looked like a golden bar of oats, while next to it was a glass of apple juice. A straw was inside the drink, and it extended so far that all I had to do was lift my head up and take a sip. I was thinking about trying to grab the food first when I realized how dry my mouth was. I immediately took a sip and promptly spat it back up the straw.

It was not that it tasted bad, Quite the contrary truly. But I was expecting Apple juice, Minute Maid or something. Not this. The drink tasted like my Grans apple crumble, my Uncle Ian's famous strawberry lemonade, and my Ma's blueberry pie. It was the weirdest concoction, but it tasted amazing. I gulped it all down in less than a minute, so thirsty and nostalgic about the foods, I didn't even notice. I suddenly felt refreshed, and took a bite of the oats bar. It tasted like my Ma's famous Cookie dough. She never actually made cookies, she just made the dough and gave it to me and my sis.

Thinking about the two made me depressed. Ma, Melissa, Ethan, there all gone. I finally felt what it was like to be alone. My rage returned for a second, but was quickly stamped out by depression. Before I could wallow any more in myself pity, I heard the door open.

In walked in a chick who seemed to be about my age. She was about five foot four, with raven black hair that went down to her shoulders, and eyes that were darker than obsidian. It was as if someone had taken her pupils, and stretched them over her irises. She was wearing a purple shirt that had some words written on it, but it seems to be written in another language. I suddenly looked again and it said "Camp Jupiter."

How had that happened? Anyways, she saw that I was awake and made her way over to me. Her movements were graceful, almost cat like, and I finally saw the two wicked looking hunting knives that hung loosely by her waist. This was going to be entertaining.

She sat down on a small chair beside my bed and seemed to calculate me with her dark eyes. I was about to tell her to stop, it was kind of irking for someone to just sit in a chair beside and look you over, but in moderation I just had done the same to her. While I was thinking about it, she seemed to sense my inner turmoil and decided to break the ice.

"It seems like our resident sleeping beauty has awoken."

I was not expecting that as her first words. When she had entered the room, she smiled when I woke up, so I didn't really expect her to have an attitude. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Her grin seemed feral almost, and I was seriously beginning to think she was part cat or something.

"Well," she began. "You have been asleep for four days. Praetor Lindsey has been quite worried you know." Another shocker. Why would some random lady who just met me after I imploded a hill not far from her city, be anxious about by recovery?

Missus Feline (gotta think of a better nickname) finally seemed to get a tad serious and started asking some real questions. "Anyway, I was sent to ask if you had any info that might be relevant to her majesty?" The way she said this, it was obvious she and this Lindsey girl were friends, but the way she said majesty was almost a sneer. Pretty odd relationship.

I thought about this. Did I have anything really important to talk about? Then I realized what I had to do. And I knew for sure it was not going through this chick.

"I need to speak to this Praetor girl immediately."

It was obvious by the look of shock on the girls face that she was surprised how blunt I was. Her little games were about weaseling out truths over a while and messing with her "victim," but I just sent a curveball her way.

"If I'm going to do that, I'm going to at least have to know your name first."

That was a question I hated. For some reason, my name never fit my body. Well, that is if you ask me. My dark chestnut black hair always somehow perfectly straightened even when I don't try. My dark, abyssal blue eyes and the scar going down my eyebrow to my lip on my right. I had been attacked by a cougar when I was four. My skin was a pale, but not like stay at home all day and play video games pale. My body just refused to tan, so I had this odd hue of skin. I finally was able to deal with the poison in my mouth as I muttered my name.

"My name is Max Bradshaw."


End file.
